What’s the story?

Using football as a way of improving physical and mental health is at the heart of what Street Soccer Scotland does. These young players proved that it’s great fun too.

Client: Street Soccer Scotland

Football, fitness and fun

When hundreds of street soccer players gather in the heart of Glasgow during Scotland’s biggest sporting year ever, you know there’s going to be a party. And that was exactly what happened when Street Soccer Scotland hosted Scotland’s largest ‘football for change’ festival.

Children from across Glasgow and teams from some of Scotland’s top businesses joined groups from Street Soccer Scotland projects and partners take part in the first ‘PwC Street Soccer Festival’ in Glasgow’s George Square in front of thousands of spectators over a mammoth eight hour period.

Using the power of football to promote positive change in the lives of socially disadvantaged adults and young people across Scotland is at the heart of Street Soccer Scotland’s aims; creating unique opportunities to get involved plays a big part in what they do too.

David Duke, founder of Street Soccer Scotland explained: “We know that our projects across the country have a positive impact in improving physical and mental health issues, supporting people with addiction problems and working with those who are currently homeless. Projects like this play an important part in encouraging more people to take up more physical activity and to see the benefits of it and of course raising awareness with the wider public, in this case the thousands of Glaswegians who passed by throughout the day.”

As a long-time supporter of and media partner Street Soccer Scotland Wave’s main part of the day centred around assisting the attending media. Most were on the lookout for ‘that’ picture, others wanted to speak with the key people – the players and those involved in the events successful delivery.

The whole event was supported by the Glasgow office of international professional services firm through mentoring, volunteering and fundraising with further support being provided by Dell, Glasgow Life and Quality Meat Scotland, whose Scotch Beef brand sponsored the school teams’ strips in the ‘Legacy 2014 Schools Challenge’.